Since I was gone pretty much all weekend, this is a 2 fer 1.
Day 26 ~ Race Day
Chris racing Marble Falls Triathlon.
You could do a Sprint (.47 mile swim, 12 mile bike, 3.1 mile run),
Olympic (.93 Mile swim, 24.8 mile bike, 6.2 mile run)
Half Ironman (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run)
or
Full Ironman distance (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and 26.2 mile run).
Chris did the Full Ironman distance.
I actually shot this in automatic because we were next to the road and I had a roaming baby. So, this is the epitome of point and shoot.
This was his first 4 miles of the 26.2 mile run. I saw him coming in on the bike and he was not feeling it. The course was brutal. Seeing all the ‘halfers’ coming in I thought they were gonna die. Many were drenched in sweat and tears. SOme scrapped up from their bike portion.
That course was practically all hills. Chris described it as many mins climbing hills, a few seconds going down, and then going back up. There wasn’t ever a flat section to recover from the last hill.
He never went to bed the night before (getting his bike ready, then he left at 3am to get to the race on time), so he said he was falling asleep on the bike.
He contemplating about quitting once the bike was over. If you know Chris you know this is just not the norm for him. I knew something was wrong when I saw him coming in from his bike. He stopped to chat with me for a few mins. The last 60 miles were a mental game for him. His mind was done. He went ahead and pushed through, and once he started the run, he felt a lot better.
After all of that and some very half ass training, he placed 4th overall and 1st in his age group. I cannot remember his winning time, but I am sure he will be blogging about that soon.
From the spectator side it was not fun for us. Granted I had a very grumpy Lydia and Sophia was wanting to chase the runners down as they passed us. Dane was the only one who did not give me any trouble.
The traffic was horrible. It was down to 1 lane for the race, and it was stop and go for miles. I think it took us 30 mins to go 5 miles. Our A/C went out on our van back in December. We let that go for awhile because we didn’t need it. I needed it Saturday. The humidity was bad, so standing still in a car with 3 kids fussing was not my idea of fun.
I had to pee like you wouldn’t believe. There was no where to stop. Sitting in traffic, I’m dancing in my seat like crazy. Dane tells me to just go in the bushes. I came so close, but I would have had a large audience. I considered it though..
Finally I see an Exon, 4 miles from the start. Relief at last! I decided to just stay there and watch the racers pass us. I was not going to get back in that traffic.
Here are some photos of that day.
DAY 27 ~ Super Mad!
I left the house with my camera in tow, unfortunately I did not listen to the little voice inside my head to charge it. UGH! Dead battery…couldn’t even get one photo.
That’s why this is called Super Mad.
Sunday we went back to Marble Falls for awards and watched a Kids Triathlon. The kids played in the lake, played on playground, saw some awesome wild flowers. Everywhere I looked I was reminded that my camera was out of commission. I would get mad every single time. I couldn’t believe I did that!
That being said, I did take a photo with my phone. This was the start of the kids tri. Lydia is watching, Dane was somewhere and Sophia kept trying to get out Chris’ arms and go swimming on her own.
So, there you have it. 2 fer 1
The Aarhus' Fluff N' Stuff 